


song and dance

by vampiresuffrage



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, monster ladies in love! monster ladies being monsters! nothing better in the world!, obv warning for the worm stuff with jane+skin stuff with nikola, references to the unknowing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 10:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20544743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampiresuffrage/pseuds/vampiresuffrage
Summary: Nikola needed the perfect Singer for her glorious Unknowing. Enter Jane Prentiss, whose thousands of voices were all Nikola could want while her Dancers welcomed the new world.





	song and dance

**Author's Note:**

> henry this is for you (find henry, actual lesbian icon, @units214 on tumblr)

When the Ringmaster first met the Hive, the Hive had not yet become. 

The Host, still nothing but human flesh and a single consciousness, had visited the clothing store that Nikola Orsinov was biding her time in as a nearly-lifeless mannequin, waiting to find a skin she would like to pilot out. When the Host, still Jane Prentiss, walked past her display humming a dissonant melody, Nikola thought for a moment she would be a wonderful choice, both because Nikola thought she was rather beautiful for a human and because something in the song she hummed called out to her. 

She realized then that the Corruption already had a hold on the woman, and while the woman’s skin would’ve been a nice fit, Nikola was...curious to see where the Corruption’s song carried her. So she let the woman do her shopping and return home to the Corruption’s embrace, and she waited. 

Eventually, Nikola took enough human parts to be free to do as she pleased again. She was too concerned with her Dance, her glorious Unknowing, to spare more than a fleeting thought for the Corruption-touched human she’d seen once and then never again.

And then she saw the Hive in its harmonious glory. 

Nikola enjoyed taking walks. She enjoyed watching the humans watching her, most of them confused and nervous and sometimes outright frightened by her still features and stiff, _ uncanny _ way of carrying herself. Walks at night were best, when there were few enough people that the ones she did see would try desperately to convince themselves that their minds were playing tricks, making her appear worse than she was, even though the deepest parts of them knew she was _ exactly _ what she seemed and worse. 

She heard that song again and was immediately reminded of the woman, though this time the song contained multitudes. Hundreds, _ thousands _ of voices in perfect unity humming a grating, dissonant, _ enchanting _ melody. It made Nikola want to dance. 

She followed the noise to the Hive, found what had clearly formerly been the human from the store, but was now hunched in an alley, one of the straps of her red slip falling off of her shoulder, small worms squirming through the holes that littered her formerly smooth skin and travelling through her body, hardly a trace of that human left. Nikola found herself transfixed for a moment by the movement of the Hive, the synchrony in the movements of each of their countless bodies through the Host’s beautiful skin. 

She broke herself from her brief reverie when the Host’s head began to turn towards her. “Well, hello, Flesh Hive! Can I ask your name?”

The Host cocked her head--or was that the Hive? Nikola wasn’t sure the distinction mattered. The words sounded forced, but still held a sort of melody when the Host's mouth said “She was Jane Prentiss. Now _ we _are the Hive.”

“Oh, Jane is a lovely name, isn’t it! Now, Jane--can I call you Jane?” Neither Hive nor Host answered, so Nikola continued on. “So, Jane, I am creating a _ Dance_. One that you could never even _ imagine_. It will be beautiful and horrible, and it will change the _ world _ in beautiful and horrible ways. I have been planning this Dance for a _ very _ long time, Jane. It is very important to my Circus.”  
  
“And what does that have to do with us?” There was little room for patience in Jane Prentiss, what with the worms taking up all of the space in the Host. 

“Oh, Jane--can I call you Jane?--I’m _ so _ glad you asked!” Nikola clasped her hands together excitedly, rocking on her borrowed heels. “Well you see, I’ve put so much work into making our Dance _ perfect_, but I just can’t find a _ song _ that can handle it.”

The Host’s head lifted, and Nikola could tell she’d properly gotten her attention. “You want..._us _ to sing.” It wasn’t a question because it didn’t need to be, the Hive knew exactly what she wanted from them.

“Of course I do Jane! Can I call--”  
  
“Jane is fine,” the Hive finally relented.  
  
Nikola beamed, showing all of her shiny, too-many teeth. She’d never _ had _ a mouth before, and she’d decided to try it out for awhile. She’d decided it was _ fun _ to watch little humans try to believe she had the usual sort of teeth, but the mouth was another moving part to keep track of, so she thought she might get rid of it soon. The Hive was unfazed by the uncanny smile, which Nikola expected, but she didn’t have to _ like _ it. 

“Wonderful! Well, Jane, I think the Circus would rather enjoy dancing for your song. In fact, I _ know _ they will, because _ I _ will enjoy it, and this is _ my _ Circus. Would you _ like _to sing for all of us while we dance the world new?”

The Hive appraised Nikola, and they began singing to the Host. Her eyelids closed over empty eye sockets as she listened, and when they opened again, Nikola knew that a decision had been made. “We will sing. But only if the Stranger will bring us through with it after your Unknowing.”

“Well, of _ course _ it will. The Stranger will reward you _ generously _ for helping it so greatly, Jane! Your Song and our Dance will remake the world for the _ both _ of us.” Nikola couldn’t know that for certain, of course. The Stranger’s intentions were, by nature, unknowable. But Nikola thought it was _ probably _ the case, and the Hive needed nothing more than Nikola’s own unshakeable faith in her Dance. 

They nodded at Nikola, and the Host stretched out a hand for Nikola to shake. That, at least, Nikola knew was the Host. The worms would never have bothered with a gesture as human as shaking hands to make a deal. Nikola grasped her hand and firmly shook. The worms, of course, surged forward as well and several of them attempted to burrow into her, succeeding only in ruining some perfectly good skin. She would have to replace that once she left. 

Nikola still smiled too widely at the Host though, even as she picked the worms from her skin and flicked them to the ground. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Jane! I need to go tell my Circus the good news now! Would you like to come with me? After all, it's important that you meet the Choir you'll be leading."

"We do not _ need _ a choir," the Hive insisted, sinking back into their hunched position in the alley. 

"_You _ may not, but the Stranger needs a Choir of its own loyal servants. The Choir may sing, but _ your _ Song will be all we hear as we usher in the new world, Jane."

The Hive considered. "We will come."

Nikola clapped her now-ruined hands and stretched one out for the Host to grab. If the skin was already ruined, there would be no _ additional _ inconvenience caused by showing her affections to her Singer. 

The Host took her hand. She laced their fingers together, and Nikola swung their intertwined hands between them the whole walk back. The Host's hand in hers felt...pleasant. Maybe it was worth needing to find a bit of new skin. 

The Circus welcomed the Hive, welcomed their leading role in the Choir, because Nikola's pointed smile and jubilant tone left no room for debate. When the Ringmaster had made up her mind, the decision was already made, and her Circus would _ never _ question her decisions for their glorious Unknowing.

Nikola showed the Hive to a room the Host could rest when she needed to, the Host still holding her hand tightly. Nikola thought she rather liked the feel of the Host's hand in hers, even if she could feel the squirming of the Hive under the skin. 

Hive and Host were a common sight around the museum after that. They had to practice with Nikola's glorious Choir of course, and if they ultimately spent far more time with Nikola than with the Choir, well. Planning was important as well, and Jane was excellent to bounce ideas off of. Nikola enjoyed her company, and enjoyed it even more once the Hive agreed to stop burrowing into Nikola's wax statues and the Dancers who still had skin.

The Corruption could create all the Flesh Hives it desired once the Stranger brought the both of them through in the Unknowing, she told the Hive, but it couldn't have any of the Circus. The Hive agreed that the conditions were fair, and Nikola didn't have to spend nearly so much time replacing fleshy bits or repairing statues after that.

Once Nikola was sure her own new and wonderfully smooth skin would remain unmarred by the Hive, she held Jane's hand more often. She also grew more fond of Jane, separate from her role as the Host. Jane, the woman who had always sang, even before she had thousands of voices to harmonize with, who had a tight grip when she held Nikola's hand but still looked away when Nikola paid her compliments, who tucked her stringy hair behind her hair and had a full smile on her face when she complimented Nikola back. The Jane who, the first time she kissed Nikola, melted into it as though it were perfect even though Nikola had long since done away with that pesky mouth she'd worn when the Hive joined her Choir. 

The Hive's beautiful harmonies may have brought Nikola to the Host, but Jane's own wonderful company was what made Nikola want to actually know her rather than keeping her a reverent stranger like the rest of her Circus.

Their first kiss was, fittingly, during a dance (though not the Dance).

Nikola often asked Jane to sing, usually in harmony with the Hive, but sometimes she requested that Jane sing to her with what was left of her human voice, and sometimes Jane even obliged her. Jane sang, and Nikola danced. Sometimes Nikola danced on her own, twirling around the Hive and the statues, and sometimes Jane agreed to dance with her, lively and spinning and swaying together to the melody of her Song. 

That day, Nikola danced alone to Jane's solitary voice. At first, at least. When she spun around the Hive, walking her fingers across Jane's shoulders, Jane reached up and grabbed Nikola's hand, standing to join her in dance. 

As they swayed in time to Jane's singing, the voices of the Hive began to Sing as well, and their dance picked up in time. As the Song reached a crescendo, every one of the Hive's unified voices crying out a piercing note, Jane looped her mottled arms tightly around Nikola's Nikola's neck and kissed the spot where a mouth should be. As Nikola wound her arms around Jane's waist and let herself be kissed, affection radiating from the both of them, the Hive's Song wound to a close. 

Jane was smiling when she pulled back. She laid a hand on the side of Nikola's face, brushing her thumb over Nikola's deceptively sharp cheekbones. For a moment, the Hive surged forward defensively in response to the cut, but Jane hummed something softly and they stilled once more. 

"Have I ever told you, Jane," Nikola began, tucking Jane's hair behind her ear, "how incredibly fond I am of you?"

Jane laughed, ducking her head, and if she'd had any blood left Nikola thought she'd be blushing. "We are quite fond of you as well."

"The Hive, or Jane?" Nikola asked, cocking her head. The distinction may not matter to Jane or to herself, but Nikola allowed herself some curiosity anyways. 

"Jane, the Hive, me, them. All of us. We are _ all _ fond of you, Nikola. If we weren't, we would never have agreed to sing for you."

"I'm rather glad you agreed! There is little that could possibly be as beautiful as you leading my Choir, Singing us into a new world. It will be the most wonderful thing to ever happen to this world, I think."

Jane hummed in response before kissing Nikola again, and though Nikola had never before understood why humans were so fond of such displays of affection, holding Jane close while Jane kissed her fiercely was a _ beautiful _ feeling. 

It made her want to dance.

**Author's Note:**

> gay rights! im on tumblr @lesbianweb


End file.
